Boulder Restaurant Profile | FOOLISH CRIAG'S CAFE

Creative Crêpes and Then Some
by Laurie M. Fisher

If they didn’t work at Foolish Craig’s Café, Craig Moelis and Mitch Arden would want to hang out there. The two owners, along with their many regular customers, enjoy the place for its relaxed atmosphere, friendly, down-to-earth servers and “high-end fresh food” that, Arden emphasizes, is always cooked to order.

The cozy spot has been a Boulder favorite for breakfast, lunch and dinner since it opened on April Fool’s Day 1998. Before their joint venture, Moelis and Arden worked together at Moe’s Bagels, and they modeled their restaurant after crêperies and sandwich shops they had visited on a business trip to San Francisco.

A Pearl Street location for the restaurant was a priority. The owners liked the exposed red-brick interior walls and hardwood floors of the former Recycled Audio store at 1611 Pearl. Their interior designer—“one crazy lady,” Arden says admiringly—spray-painted the ceiling to create a mostly-blue sky that shades from dawn to night. Oversized artwork and assorted colored tables added a funky feel to the historic building. Later, diners started bringing in old vanity license plates—ELVIS, RAINBOW and XTREMR1, for example—some of which now hang on the walls.

“We don’t solicit it; it’s one of those quirky things that sort of happened,” Moelis says of the license plates. “We’re running out of room to display them.”

The café’s name was another of those quirky things. “I wish there was a great story about the name,” Moelis says. “When I was working at Moe’s, I was making a rye bread starter called poolish—the bread tasted amazing. I was telling Mitch, and he came up with ‘foolish Craig making the poolish.’ People ask me, ‘Are you Foolish Craig?’ I answer, ‘Yeah, I guess I am.’”

Foolish Craig’s was one of the first Boulder restaurants to specialize in crêpes. People keep coming back for creative combinations like the Breast O’Pesto, filled with marinated chicken, pesto (of course), sun-dried tomatoes and onions. In addition to crêpes, Moelis and Arden serve a variety of inexpensive breakfast and lunch items such as homemade soups, salads, sandwiches, a cheddar-topped omelet loaded with vegetables. The thickly sliced French toast comes plain with powdered sugar or accompanied by seasonal fresh fruit or strawberries sautéed with butter and brown sugar. All crêpes, omelets, soups, sandwiches and salads are priced under $8, and children’s menu items cost less than $3.

Happy Hour brings in another set of patrons in search of a drink and appetizers that range from nachos to hot Brie served with raspberry sauce, toasted almonds and a toasted baguette.

To appeal to the dinner crowd, the owners have expanded the evening menu. If fish is a favorite, Moelis recommends the grilled ahi tuna steak topped with mango salsa and served with sweet soy sauce, wasabi, roasted sweet potatoes and stir-fried vegetables. Chicken piccata is a popular new entrée. Two vegetarian choices are the Crêpe Crestelle—a lemon-zest crêpe stuffed with asparagus and sautéed portobello and button mushrooms, served with a red-wine cream sauce—and the spinach-and-ricotta-stuffed ravioli topped with pink-vodka cream sauce. All dinners are priced under $16.

Foolish Craig’s portions are generous, but even if you think you can’t eat another bite, save room for dessert. Served with whipped cream and ice cream if you choose, the dessert crêpes are tantalizing: Try the almond-peach crêpe, made with slivered almonds, peaches, brown sugar and cinnamon. The Whole Thing, filled with sugared walnuts, Nutella and bananas, is worth every calorie.

A restaurant business can be all consuming, especially one that is open for three meals a day, seven days a week. Moelis and Arden typically alternate their hours at the restaurant. “It’s all been worthwhile—we both met our wives here,” Moelis says with a smile. And they’re proud that more than half their customers are regulars.

The two owners have seen some changes in the Boulder restaurant scene since they opened. There are more restaurants along the east end of Pearl Street, but Moelis views the competition as a positive development. He predicts that now that construction around the café has eased, people will browse, meet for drinks and dine at the east end of the mall.

Foolish Craig’s Café is at 1611 Pearl Street; the phone number is 303-247-9383. Reservations are not accepted, though large groups may reserve the upstairs balcony during the week.

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